Menu

Produce

The fresh produce department is the heart of every Best Market. It makes sense: Best Market, like Best Yet Market and Produce Warehouse before it, built its reputation on having the finest quality hand-selected produce available. That tradition is stronger than ever in the produce departments in our stores.

Bright, vibrant displays of fruit and vegetables greet customers as they enter their local Best Market. The abundant selection is at the peak of freshness, and a quick look at the prices proves that Best Market is a low price leader in produce. Maybe that’s why it’s our most talked-about department!

The selection and variety go beyond conventional produce. We have bananas, apples, and tomatoes—sure—but also organic blue corn, heirloom potatoes, and exotic lychees flown in direct from the source. Many items are sourced at local farms in New York and New Jersey. These local items are always harvested fresh: a local vegetable was probably plucked or picked from a tree or vine just a day or two earlier.

Strong partnerships with local growers allow Best Market to buy direct from local farms. Every fall, we ship 20 different varieties of apples from Oded our apple grower in Upstate New York. Maugeri Farms, the New Jersey Vegetable Grower of the Year for 2010, ships us fresh asparagus, zucchini, squash, and melons from their family-owned South Jersey farm, and we receive watermelon, eggplant, and leafy greens from the fifth-generation Bergamo Bros. Farms. Fourth generation, family-owned farms like Dante Spina & Sons, Catalano Farms, and Buena Vista Farms send up peppers, cucumbers, greens, sweet potato, and melons from their fields, while we get items like beans, radish, turnips, leeks, and blueberries from Genoa Farms, Coia Farms, and S. and J. Leone Farms in New Jersey.

Some of our farms have real history: Sheppard Farms in New Jersey, which supplies us with lettuce, peppers, cucumber, and squash, has family-farming ties that date back to 1683! And farms like Fralingers Orchards–which won the 2009 Governor’s Cup at the New Jersey Peach Festival–are newer, cutting edge operations, with hydro-cooling facilities to keep everything extra fresh. We even partner with family-owned organic growers like Marolda Farms, where vegetables are grown free of pesticides through environmentally sensitive approaches to farming. We’re also proud to carry national organic and natural brands like Earthbound Farm alongside the dozens of items we stock that are grown with pride in New York and New Jersey.

Team members hand-select all our convenient pre-cut produce, too. Cut fruits and vegetables are the pinnacle of deliciousness and, of course, freshness: items are cut, packaged, and stocked throughout the day. Whether they’re for a fresh produce platter, a head start on a daily meal, or a healthy snack the whole family can enjoy, the cut produce at Best Market can’t be beat for convenience or quality.

The produce department also hosts Best Market’s selection of beautiful cut and potted flowers. Throughout the year, our exclusive partners at Long Island’s Gabrielsen Farms ship us plants, annuals, and ultra-fresh seasonal flowers: pansies in the spring, sunflowers in the summer, mums in the fall, as well as the elusive and beautiful Montauk Daisies—found only at Best Market. Without fail, the flowers from Gabrielsen Farms are lush and inviting, which is why Team Members place them in front of the store to welcome our customers. We also receive shipments every week of fresh-cut flowers flown direct from exotic flower distributors in balmy South America.

If there’s one thing that makes every Best Market truly the “best,” its the quality, selection and price, of our produce departments.